Integrating the Integrating the Monitoring of Agricultural Pests Monitoring of Agricultural Pests into Biodiversity Assessmentsinto Biodiversity Assessments

Gail E. KampmeierIllinois Natural History Survey

Institute of Natural Resource SustainabilityUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Agriculture as a Measure of Biodiversity

Traditionally, agriculture = downgraded

ecosystem a poor relation to the ideal

biodiverse ecosystem of "Nature" Agriculture has its own

challenges Reduced diversity - easily

discovered by pests Monocultures - species, cultivars Spatial regularity - row crops,

crowding Selection pressure: environment

modified by use of pesticides, resistant cultivars, planting date

Wealth of Data

Aside from scientists interested in conservation of genetics of crops & their wild relatives, few agricultural scientists see the value of their data to the biodiversity community Value in peer-reviewed publications, not data

publication Concern about losing control of their dataset

Biodiversity community has traditionally only paid attention to what is stored in museums or databanks

Land Managers, Climate Change Specialists Need

More than one-off collections of taxa Sampling biased by

collector, but not always apparent

Need measures over time of Presence and absence Diversity

Under varying conditions

Agricultural Research has Rich Data Heritage

Purposefully constructed hypotheses tested in Variety of (controlled) habitats

& (uncontrollable) abiotic conditions

Replicated experimental designs Examine effects of manipulation

of the environment on species behavior

Samples taken at uniform intervals over seasons, years

Integrated Pest Management Sets an economic

threshold for making decisions on strategies for maintaining pests at, or below a threshold of economic loss (economic injury level)

The choice of strategies can conserve Biodiversity Water, air, & soil quality money

Brewer, et. al. 2009. Opportunities, experiences, Brewer, et. al. 2009. Opportunities, experiences, and strategies to connect integrated pest and strategies to connect integrated pest management to U.S. Department of Agriculture management to U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation programs. Conservation programs. American Entomologist American Entomologist 55(3):140-146.55(3):140-146.

Aphids - Pucerons - Afidos

Direct pests of plants Vectors of plant viruses Produce honeydew

Food source for ants, predators, & parasitoids

Molds Damage to crops depends on

when & in what numbers they appear in the field

Complex life cycleComplex life cycleMacrosiphum rosaeMacrosiphum rosae photo courtesy Alex Wild 2008, photo courtesy Alex Wild 2008, http://myrmecos.wordpress.com/

Aphids Move Walking

Intraplant Interplant

Flying Intrafield Interfield Migration over 100s of

kilometersCartoon by John SherrodCartoon by John Sherrod

Tracking the Russian

wheat aphid

Bugs = "Angel Echoes"

CHILL Radar CHILL Radar located in located in Greeley, Greeley, ColoradoColorado

Tracking Aphids at Elevations Above Ground Level (AGL)

Air temperature Insects, including

aphids accumulate at or in inversions (temperatures are warmer than the air below)

Wind speed Below jet, aphids local In jet, had traveled

overnight from sources 240-400 km south from overwintering populations

Mapping to Darwin CorePresence/Absence ObservationsTaxon informationSampling units known volume of

airLarge amount of related

observations of air temperature, radar observations

Soybean Aphid: Invasive Species in North America

Direct pest of soybean

Suction trap network set up in U.S. Midwest Prediction of

infestation level Indicator to

farmers to scout for signs of aphids

http://www.ncipmc.org/traps/index.cfm

Soybean Aphid Central

http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/programs/aphids.html#soybeanaphid

Weekly Data Flights arriving late

August built up on late soybean, leaving in September as soybean dried down & flying to Rhamnus

Soybean Aphids Swarm

Photo courtesy Alex Wild 2009, Photo courtesy Alex Wild 2009, http://myrmecos.wordpress.com/

Date Date 20092009

DeKalbDeKalb MetamoraMetamora UrbanaUrbana Dixon Dixon SpringsSprings

31 July31 July 00 00 00 0007 Aug07 Aug 33 11 00 0014 Aug14 Aug 2121 2020 33 7721 Aug21 Aug 3737 -- 2020 2228 Aug28 Aug 210210 188188 3939 515104 Sept04 Sept 4141 8080 1515 16616611 Sept11 Sept 88 3030 3333 111118 Sept18 Sept 680680 86008600 10001000 141425 Sept25 Sept 91869186 53755375 1828018280 2929

Weekly Suction Trap Counts in Illinois

Implications of Darwin Core for Agricultural Data

Simple Darwin Core Most agricultural

data fit rows/columns

Fields used only once

No minimum/ maximum data

Will include samples with 0 to multiple observations for a taxon

Challenges Human observations

(not preserved) thus not given an identifier

Asked to think about data in unaccustomed ways

Asked to document items usually noted once in a field notebook

Example of SimpleDarwinRecord

Easier to use Excel spreadsheet or create a database template to export to Excel

Challenges Mixture of

observations & vouchered specimens

Results buried in literature

Little or no metadata for raw data

Scientists have little incentive to go to extra trouble to share

Conclusions If we want to incorporate

agricultural datasets into our biodiversity assessments, we will need to work with these scientists to make it easy to provide their data in a format that is fit for use by the biodiversity community. Biocontrol in action!Biocontrol in action!

Aphis nerii being eaten by a syrphid Aphis nerii being eaten by a syrphid fly larva. Photo courtesy Alex Wildfly larva. Photo courtesy Alex Wild

How do we do this? Jim Case provided in talk earlier today,

Bring groups together Provide introductory guides (documents) Provide links to resources Registry system Discussion forums bring users together

And engage the cooperation of journals to provide a home for data with its metadata

Acknowledgments Illinois Department of Energy

and Natural Resources Illinois Natural History Survey Illinois State Water Survey University of Illinois North Central Regional IPM National Science Foundation Hatch ILLU-370 Global Biodiversity Information

Facility Biodiversity Information

Standards (TDWG)